Red Jacket

Red Jacket (1750-20 January 1830) was a Seneca chief during the American Revolutionary War. Red Jacket was a famous orator, speaking for the rights of his people and even meeting with President George Washington in 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss land rights with the United States.

Biography
Red Jacket was born in 1750 near present-day Geneva, New York, and he became a chief of the Seneca tribe in the Iroquois Confederacy. Red Jacket was a bitter enemy of Mohawk chief Joseph Brant, and Brant alleged that he used cow blood to pretend that he had killed patriots at the 1779 battle of Newtown. In 1792, Red Jacket headed to Philadelphia and conferred with President George Washington of the United States, speaking for native rights. Red Jacket made a speech to the US Senate in 1805, saying that both Native Americans and whites should have the right to choose whatever religion suited them best. Red Jacket died in 1830 at the age of 80.